170 GEOEGE JOHN EOMANES issi- 



To F. Darwin, Esq. 



Geanies : November 5, 1886. 



Dear Darwin, — I am much interested by the en- 

 closed, and therefore much obhged to you for letting 

 me see it. But it would have been made a better 

 ' answer ' if it had gone on to say something about 

 the relation of such an experiment (supposing it suc- 

 cessful) to the question of originating a species. 

 Some weeks ago I was planning with a friend a 

 closely analogous experiment, but designed to pro- 

 duce a ' family ' which would be sterile towards the 

 majority of the parent form, or not only towards one 

 other 'family.' And it seemed to me that if this 

 could be done it would amount to the artificial 

 creation of a new species by conscious selection of a 

 physiological kind. 



But, as far as I can gather from the enclosed, the 

 idea seems to be that of experimenting on the con- 

 ditions leading to sterility ; not that of regarding 

 sterility, however conditional, as itself the condition 

 of specific divergence. In other words, the passage 

 seems to go upon the supposition that steriHty is the 

 result and not the cause of specific divergence. But 

 if so, I do not see that it affects the question whether 

 he ever contemplated the latter possibility. 



I have just received Seebohm's British Association 

 paper, which, except when it repeats Wallace's objec- 

 tion about the doctrine of chances, elsewhere curiously 

 contradicts all the points in his criticism. 



The editor of the ' Fortnightly ' tells me that a 

 further delay has arisen in bringing out my reply, on 



